Boarding and disembarking a boat from the water or while beached on a shoreline has often proved difficult. The ability to move on and off the boat easily during an outing is an essential aspect for swimming or ferrying passengers back and forth to shore. A sturdy platform to gain access up the side of the boat can make or break the boating experience. Its importance can be gauged by the many efforts to provide a ladder or platform for this purpose.
Current schemes use essentially two mechanisms for boarding and disembarking a boat. One mechanism uses a temporary boarding ladder. Another mechanism uses a permanently mounted swim platform and ladder.
Temporary boarding ladders can be split into two types; rope style and solid frame hook style. Rope style ladders are easy to store and require no mounting hardware but require the talents of a gymnast to ascend successfully. They have no center or bottom stability and swing easily on a curved hull, making them all but impossible for those with limited physical ability to ascend. They also have narrow ladder rungs which make them treacherous to mount from a bobbing dingy or shore boat.
Hook style ladders provide a solid frame but still have the narrow rung affliction. In addition, the hook style top can only be mounted over the gunnel or sides of the boat. Mounting a hook style ladder over the gunnel or the side of the boat drastically limits the locations where a hook style ladder can be used. Some ladder styles afford permanent mounting brackets, limiting location further.
Permanently mounted swim platforms provide greatly improved stability and usefulness, but as implied, are permanently located in one spot (usually the transom) and are unable to be easily relocated or adjusted thus limiting locations from which to board the boat. Side mounting is typically not available because it would get in the way during docking.